Friday, May 30, 2014

Why Do You Notarize Copyright Assigments?

This comes
from either the “learn something new every day” or blatantly obvious
department.

Years ago a
very smart attorney told me that a notarized signature was not required for a
valid copyright assignment.It is true
that § 204(a) Copyright Act states “a transfer of copyright ownership
other than by operation of law is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance,
or a note or memorandum of the transfer is in writing and is signed by the
owner of the rights conveyed…”.There is
specifically no requirement of notarizing the signature.

So, I have wondered for years why publishers and
others require copyright assignments to be notarized.While researching something else I seem to
have found that the answer is right there in § 204(b) of the act which
states “a certificate of acknowledgement is not required for the validity of a
transfer but it is prima face evidence of the execution of the transfer if (i)
in the case of a transfer executed in the United States a certificate is issued
by a person authorized to administer oaths within the United States.

Once again
I find the Copyright Act of 1976
incredibly illuminating.In essence, it is
not a legal requirement that your copyright assignment be notarized, it’s just
a very good idea from an evidentiary standpoint.No one ever discusses the validity of
copyright assignments except in the context of evidence. So, I conclude that
despite the language of § 204(a), copyright assignments need to be
notarized.